Lesbian, bisexual, and transmasculine (LBT) individuals face unique forms of natal family violence, and crisis intervention strategies are crucial for their survival and well-being.
Authors
Niharika Banerjea, Professor, Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, India
Kolika Mitra, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, India
Poushali Basak, Advanced Centre for Women’s Students, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India
Summary
This chapter engages with those queers and trans persons who are at the forefront of facilitating survivors of natal family violence out of their familial homes. Lesbian, bisexual, and transmasculine (LBT) identifying persons survive unique forms of natal family violence related to their gender-sexual intersectional locations. The chapter collaboratively engages in experiential-analytical documentation of crisis intervention in natal family violence. Eight of the authors named in this chapter from the COVID-19-induced lockdown have been directly involved with organizing ‘paths to survival’ along with LBT persons who have migrated from various districts in West Bengal to safer spaces. How do we deploy ‘crisis intervention’? What does it mean to organize ‘paths to survival’? What effects do these have on the mental health of the organizers?
We conducted a reflexive focus group discussion amongst ourselves to understand the meaning of intervention, the process, and what it means to navigate families and police along the way. We do not seek to break the silence by publicizing the particular instances of natal family violence, but by engaging with the expectations of the organizers as they seek to create liveable lives with/for their peers who are looking for a way out of natal family violence. This chapter discusses the affective and methodological dimensions of intervening in instances of natal family violence, and what it may mean for survival and liveability. We expect to join critical voices who are working to break the heteropatriarchal status quo surrounding natal family homes in the absence of anti-discrimination laws.
Published in: Sustainable Development Goals Series
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